炒股应该按商业活动报税还是按投资报税

炒股应该按商业活动报税还是按投资报税

对于标题中的问题有专门的论文进行论述：

ON THE TAX CLASSIFICATION OF DAY STOCK TRADERS AS INVESTORS OR TRADERS
Buagu Musazi

这里我们概括这篇文章的几个要点.

从交税角度看, 炒股可能算作商业活动，也可能算作投资.这方面的定义并不明确.
The ambiguity in classifying day stock traders as investors or businesspersons for tax purposes is still unsolved since the 1930s.

如果算作商业活动,需要交自雇税,投资损失可以全部减税，家庭办公费可以减税。
When an activity is tax-classified as a business, the taxpayer is required to pay self-employment tax on Schedule C profit. In addition, the taxpayer can deduct, without any limitations, all net long-term capital losses plus any other ordinary, necessary and reasonable business expenses incurred during the tax year.

如果算作投资活动,长期收益交税比较少，每年亏损部分至多只能减税3000美元，交易费用可以减税。
If an activity is tax-classified as an investment, no self-employment tax is required but the taxpayer is, currently, limited to deduct a maximum of $3,000 in net capital losses each year and carries forward the remaining losses. In addition, other related expenses, such as interest and fees, are deductible

因此,

1）如果有大量的损失，以商业活动报税比较有利;
taxpayers with considerable net short-term and long-term losses would prefer a business classification so that they can an immediate deduction of all their losses in the first tax year.

2）如果以有大量的长期投资收益,以投资报税比较有利;
However, taxpayers with net long-term gains would prefer the investment classification because they will enjoy the low capital gains tax rate.

3）如果有大量的短期收益,在交税的时候，商业活动报税和投资报税没有差别，但前者可以把家庭办公费减税。
For taxpayers with net short-term capital gains, such gains are taxed at the ordinary income tax rate. They would be indifferent in terms of the tax rate but in terms of deductions: if classified as business persons, they can deduct on Schedule C their business expenses such as home office and of course pay the self-employment tax.

那么，在什么情况下炒股可以算作商业活动呢?这方面没有确切的定义，往往需要法院裁决。
The tax classification ambiguity arises because the tax law (I.R.C. Section 162 and Section 212) does not draw a clear line between investors and traders. The government has so far left the classification matter to the judicial system, but the courts have not made the situation any less confusing (Lebow, Schell, and McLain, 2001).

法院判决的确依据主要是下述三个标准:

a) 投资的意图；b) 投资收入的性质；c) 交易的频繁程度.

但这些标准也不明确. 比如有人一年交易300多次，依然不被认为是商业活动.

法院把是否是day trader作为一个判据，这方面的标准是:
‘holding one’s self out to others as engaged in the trading of goods and services’,
但该标准依然含糊.

该文作者由此提出三个标准判定什么是day trader。

1）day trader以短期收益为目标,而不是以长期收益为目标;

2）交易频繁程度同股票价格变化差异成正比;

3） 交易人企图超过大盘的表现.

由此得出的判定标准是, 纯收益必须超出基金指数。
From the above assumptions it follows that net gains should at least equal the gain that would have been obtained in a market wide index mutual fund. That is,
(Net Gains – holding costs – search costs) ≥ market gain.

Net gain is the sum of the gains and losses from each transaction of given volume of stocks (V) multiplied by the frequency (N) at which trades are executed in a given year.
Holding costs (H) are involve the opportunity cost of investment the money somewhere else. It also includes margins interest, if any.
Search costs (S) involve the costs conducting research on stocks before they are traded.